Apparatus for packing articles into containers



Oct. 27, 1959 J. F. ILINDEMAN ETAL 2,910,193

APPARATUS FOR PACKING ARTICLES INTO CONTAINERS Filed April 25, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheetl INVENTORS Joseph E L/ndaman B illiam Gerald Dabbs A rroR/vcys Oct. 27, 1959 .1. F. LINDEMAN EI'AL v 2,910,193

APPARATUS FOR PACKING ARTICLES INTO CONTAINERS Filed April 25, 1955 Y s Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG-2 IN V EN TORS Joseph E Linda/nan gallium Gerald Dobbs ATTORNEYS Oct. 27, 1959 J. F. LINDEMAN ET/AL 2,910,193

' APPARATUS FOR PACKING ARTICLES INTO CONTAINERS Filed April 25, 1955 I A s Sheets-Sheet 5 5 7/ v INVENTORS 5'0 I Joseph E Lindaman I 8 63 wimam 6mm Dobba ATTORNEYS United States Patent APPARATUS FOR PACKING ARTICLES INTO CONTAINERS Joseph F. Lindeman and William Gerald Dobbs, Yakima, Wasln, assignors to Northwest Equipment Company,

Inc., acorporation of Washington H Application April 25, 1955, Serial No. 503,426

' Claims. (Cl. 214-6) This invention relates to machines for packing articles in cartons or packing cases, and has for its object to provide a machine of this class which will successfully handle all kinds of articles of generally spheroid configuration which are contained in trays commonly shipped in fiberboard or corrugated board cartons. Specific articles of the kind in question are apples, oranges, lemons, other produce, and like objects.

A number of machines have heretofore been devised for packing articles of this kind, but until recently such machines have not been in extensive use for the reason that a-maehine designed to handle one particular com modity was seldom found to be suitable for any other type of commodity, thereby so limiting the field of utility of each particular machine as not to warrant the expensive design and manufacture.

Another object of the invention lies in the provision of a machine for packing trays of produce, the use of which materially increases the amount of produce one operator may package in any given period of time.

Still another object of the invention lies in the provision of a machine for packing produce into packing cases which virtually eliminates the necessity of an operator handling the produce and therefore materially reduces the liability of the produce becoming bruised by handling.

Yet another object of the invention lies in the provision of a packaging machine which has a step by step vertically movable table adapted to raise above the elevation of the incoming produce and thereby control movement of the produce into the machine. l

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and simple manner of incorporating powered control means for actuating the table set forth in the preceding paragraph.

A still further object of the invention lies in the provision of a packing machine which will greatly simplify the functions of packing produce into packing cases.

These and further objects of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawings we have illustrated a preferred embodiment of our invention and one which has been found successful in commercial operation. In said drawings, wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts,

Figure 1 is a plan view of a produce sizing, tray filling, and packing system including the machine which constitutes the subject matter of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken substantially on a vertical plane indicated at line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical cross section taken substantially on the plane indicated by line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a horizontal view partially in cross section and taken substantially on the plane indicated by the line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary vertical elevation of the escapement mechanism taken on a vertical plane substantially indicated by line 5-5 of Figure 4; and

Figure 6 is a wiring diagram disclosing one possible ice electrical system adapted to control the operations of the machine.

Referring now in greater detail to the drawings, we have disclosed in Figure 1 a produce handling system which includes a produce sizer 10, a tray filling device 11,

and an apparatus for packing articles into containers. De-

tails of the sizer 10 and the tray filling device 11 are disclosed in two co-pending applications, and the description of the packing mechanism is amplified herein as the subject matter of the present invention.

Inspection of Figures 1 and 2 will reveal that the present invention is provided with a feed belt 13 which is particularly adapted to advance trays of produce into the packing machine, and, as is conventional, comprises an endless fabric or rubber belt 14 trained about a pair of spaced rollers 15, one of which is disclosed in Figure 2. The belt has its upper flight traveling in the direction of the arrow'16 to carry trays '17 of produce 18, such as apples, thereon.

The feed belt is driven by any conventional motivating means (not shown) and is operated constantly during the packaging operations of the machine 12.

With reference particularly to Figures 2 through 4 of the drawings, it will be seen that the packing machine 12 is provided with a sheet metal housing 19 having front and rear walls 20 and 21 and side walls 22. It will be seen that the front wall is provided at its upper end with a horizontally extending receiving table 23 disposed at an elevation coincident to the plane of the upper flight of the feed belt 13 and contiguous thereto to receive the trays 17 therefrom. The rear wall 21 is provided with a discharge table 24 which is disposed atan elevation upwardly spaced from the table 23 substantially a distance equal to the height of a tray of produce being packaged by the machine 12.

The packing machine is provided with a vertically movable table 25 which has a depending skirt 26 on its front and side edges. The skirt 26 is substantially equal in vertical dimension to the elevational difference between the receiving table 23 and the discharge table 24.

The table 25 is providedwith a rigid frame 27 which i is securely fixed to the table and extends downwardly therefrom in a vertical plane disposed laterally of the machine 12, and is preferably constructed from channel metal in a rectangular configuration when viewed in elevation as seen in Figure 3. At its upper end the frame is provided with an anchor plate 28 which is, welded or otherwise secured thereto, and therebelow theframe is suitably braced by cross bracing29.

The vertical bars 30 of the frame 27 at their lower ends are provided with vertically spaced rollers 31. These rollers 31 are disposed to roll intermediate the parallel flanges 32 of the laterally spaced vertical side bars 33 of a guide frame 34. As will be seen in Figures 3 and '4; the bars 33 are anchored at 35 to the side walls 2 2 of the housing 19. It is thus evident that the table is mounted for vertical movement by the guide frame 34.

The anchor plate 28 forms a member to which a motion translating mechanism adapted to translate the. rotary motion from the reducing transmission T into rectilinear motion at the table 25. In detail it will be understood that the anchorplate 28 is provided with an axle pin 36 V which pivotally receives a sleeve 37 rigidly secured on extends through a bearing sleeve 42 carried on the free.

end of a bell crank 43 and is pivotally associated therein and locked against removal by conventional snap rings 44. The bell crank 43 is rigidly fixed on the end of a' Patented Oct. 27, 1959.

horizontally extending shaft 45 by means of a key and keyway 46 and a fastening bolt 47.

The shaft 45 is journaled in a bearing 48 supported on the housing 19 and also in the bearing 49 spaced out wardly of the'bearing 48 and supported on a housing extension 50 which constitutes a shelf 51 supporting the operating and control mechanisms.

Intermediate the bearings 43 and 49 a sprocket 52 is fixed on the shaft, and at its outer free end the shaft has removably fixed thereon an escapement wheel 53. The escapement wheel 53 forms a part of the escapement mechanism 54 which also includes an escapement pawl 55 pivotally mounted at 56 on the shelf 51, and yieldably biased by means of spring 57 so that its roller 58, journaled inthe free end of the pawl 55, is urged into communication with the peripheral face of the escapement wheel 53.

As best seen in Figure 5, the escapement wheel 53 is provided with a number of recesses 59 which are adapted to receive the roller 58 and permit the pawl 55 to accurately position the escapement Wheel to insure that the shaft 45 will be accurately positioned circumferentially.

Associated with the pawl 55 is a solenoid 60 which is rigidly supported by an arm 61 carried by any convenient structural member such as the bearing support block 62. It will be noted that the solenoid is operably connected by means of a link 63 to the free end of the pawl 55, and when the solenoid is energized, it will withdraw the roller 58 from a recess 59, thus freeing the escapement wheel 53 for rotation.

A normally open off-on switch 64 is also carried by the member 61 and is disposed so that its actuating button 64 will be struck by the arm of the pawl 55, thus actuating the switch when the roller 58 is removed from the recess 59, and thereby close switch 64.

Inspection of Figure 6 in particular will disclose that the switch 64 is disposed in series with a clutch actuating solenoid 71 which is adapted to engage the several clutch members indicated at 65 when the solenoid 71 is energized. The clutch member 65 is interposed in the power shaft 66, which is journaled at 67 on the shelf 51 and which has a sprocket 68 on its free end. An endless chain 69 is trained about the sprockets 68 and 52 and imparts rotary motion from the shaft 66 to the shaft 45. It is thus evident that as the constantly running motor M imparts rotary motion to the shaft 66 through its reducing transmission T, and with the clutch 65 engaged, the chain will drive shaft 45. Since the bell crank 43 is operably interconnected with the table 25 by means of pitman 38, rotation of the shaft 45 will cause the table to reciprocate vertically.

In actual practice it is required that the table be stopped at successive predetermined vertical locations to receive in succession trays of produce, to form a pile or charge of trays, and the escapcment mechanism 54 is employed for accurately positioning the table by controlling rotation of shaft 45.

The normally open switch 70 (Figures 1 and 6) is seen to be connected in series with the solenoid 60. When the operator desires to shift the table, the switch 70 is actuated. In this disclosure we have shown a foot operated switch on the floor F. However, it will be understood that the switch may be disposed in any location found desirable and operated by the operator or a tray when it is placed upon the table 25. When the switch 70 is closed, the solenoid 60 is energized, thus withdrawing the roller 58 from the escapenient Wheel 53 and simultaneously causing the arm of the pawl 55 to depress the button 64 of switch 64, closing the circuit through solenoid 71 which engagesfclutch 65 and imparts rotary motion through the herein described transmission elements to the shaft 45.

Upon release of the switch 7 the roller rolls upon the outer peripheraledge of the escapement wheel 53 and table reaches its extreme lowermost position, temporarily closing the switch 70 will cause the shaft 45 to complete a full half turn while the roller 58 rolls over the smooth peripheral face which is disposed between the diamet rically opposed recesses 59 of the escapement Wheel 53, causing the table to be raised to the height of the discharge table 2.4 and above the level of the upper flight of the feed belt 13 and the receiving table 23.

It will thus be seen that any advancing trays of produce will strike against the skirt 26 of the table and be retarded until such time as the table is again lowered to the initial position of its cycle, as shown in Figure 2 of the drawing;

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States the following:

1. An article packing machine comprising a guide frame; a table vertically movable in said guide frame; a pitman journaled on said table; a bell crank operably connected to shift said pitman; a rotatable shaft having said bell crank fixed thereto; an escapement wheel fixed for rotation by said shaft; an escapement pawl operably associated with said escapement wheel; manually controlled means for shifting said pawl away from said escapement wheel; and means controlled by movement of said pawl for actuating said shaft.

2. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a vertically movable table for receiving successive layers of articles at a predetermined height; of means controlling the table comprising an escapement mechanism acting periodically to successively lower the table a fraction of its total vertical movement and subsequent to attaining its lowermost position raising said table to its uppermost position spaced above said height at which the articles are received; and an electrical control system adapted to control periodic action of said escapement mechanism.

3. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a vertically movable table for receiving successive layers of articles at a predetermined height; of means controlling the table comprising an escapement mechanism acting periodically to successively lower the table a fraction of its total vertical movement and subsequent to attaining its lowermost position raising said table to its uppermost position spaced above the height at which the articles are received; and a manually actuated electrical control system adapted to control periodic actions of said escapement mechanism.

4. An article packing machine comprising a guide frame; a table vertically movable in said guide frame; a shaft journaled in a fixed location relative to said table; means operable by rotation of said shaft for actuating said table; an escapement wheel adapted to be rotated by said shaft; an escapement pawl operably associated with said escapement wheel; manually controlled means for shifting said pawl away from said escapement wheel; and means controlled by movement of said pawl for actuating said shaft.

5. In an article packing machine, the combination with a constant source of rotary motion; of a vertically movable table, a motion translating mechanism operably interconnecting said table and said source ofrotary motion for translating said rotary motion to vertical movement. of said table; means for controlling said translating an sm r fiect n t p by s p lowering of sa table and subsequent to attaining its lowermost position raising said table to its uppermost position; said last named means including an eseapernent mechanism operable to releasably hold saidtable successively in said stepped positions; and said translating mechanism including a clutch engageable to transmit motion in timed relation with release of said table for movement by said escapement mechanism.

768,104 Wieda Aug. 23, 1904 Ekstrom'etal. Dec. 7, 1926 Kasser Mar. 31, 1931 Carey June 23, 1936 Kimball et a1 July 14, 1936 Jakob June 12, 1951 Hess Apr. 1, 1952 Bardet Apr. 15, 1952 Chapman June 10, 1952 Dalton Aug. 11, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Mar. 30, 1922 

